The Shamrock Shuffle

Well there is no getting out of it now. I officially signed up to participate in the Shamrock Shuffle on March 25^th. For those not in the know, the shuffle is an 8k run or you can sign up for the 5k fitness walk. As of now I have signed up for the 5k but, if I get in enough shape by the date I was told if there are spots open I could do the 8k.

This all started in November. Joyce had been bugging me to join a gym. I have never been much of a workout guy as my gut would indicate. Growing up, I needed to put on weight not lose any as I was always thin in my early years. Eventually through pure laziness and very cheap beer my one time hyper metabolism, slowed to a crawl and I went from being under weight to being a tad over weight, with maybe like a month in that ideal category.

I grew up being able to eat whatever the hell I wanted and never having to worry about the consequences. Plus, I was pretty active anyway playing softball in my late teens and early twenties, a couple of nights a week. Eventually my lifestyle caught up to me. Inevitability, as I got older and started slowing down, I started to gain weight. At some point, I figured I better start doing some cardio work to try and at least stem the tide. I joined a gym for a brief period of time in 2000. I never really liked the place as it was full of a bunch of muscle heads that were constantly checking themselves out in the mirror. I always hated these two inched penis assholes that had to make up for their size of their units by shooting themselves with ‘roids and building their biceps. The final straw came when I went to the whirlpool, and a guy who must have been related to George the Animal Steele, was sitting there free-balling while reading the paper. I quickly, quit that gym.

Then right before I got married, Joyce talked me into joining the gym at the Chicago Ridge Park District. I actually liked going there as it was dead. They also had a full basketball court so, if I didn’t feel like working out I would just shoot baskets for awhile. Eventually, Joyce and I stopped going when our one year membership wore out.

So, for the last couple of years, I hadn’t belonged to any type of gym. Then this year, Joyce really started to push for us to join one to try to get into some kind of shape. We looked at a couple of places but none of them seemed right. I admit that I am very picky when it comes to a workout facility. I hate Bally’s and places of that ilk where it is nothing more then a meat market. I also didn’t want to sign any contract. I wanted to find a place that was low key, where I could pay month to month.

Well, one day as I was going to GameTime in Palos Heights to watch some football, I noticed a place called Cardinal Fitness. So, I told Joyce about it and we went to check it out. The cool thing about this place was that it was only $31 bucks a month for the both of us and they had a number of locations in the Chicagoland area that we could go to if we were members. So, sometime in November we signed up.

We have been going pretty religiously, and I have been going further and further distances on the treadmill. Then, last week a co-worker mentioned that he was going to participate in the Shamrock Shuffle. After discussing it with him he talked me into doing it as well. My feeling is that, this at least gives me a goal. Also, if I keep hitting the gym “training” for this thing eventually some weight will have to come off.

Of course, if I cut out beer and burritos that would go a long way to helping in my quest to become healthy. But, my feeling has always been life is hard enough, why would you want to cut out things that give you some small pleasure. I have always had a deal with myself that I would eat and drink whatever I wanted until I was forty and then I would start making some dietary changes. I still am sticking to that, but going to the gym and at least trying to maintain some semblance of good health can’t be a bad thing.